


You Hold the Key

by thatsoccercoach



Series: Which Door? (Fluffy Fraser Fics) [62]
Category: Outlander & Related Fandoms, Outlander Series - Diana Gabaldon
Genre: pure fluff, with a tiny dash of angst for a mo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-16
Updated: 2019-05-16
Packaged: 2020-03-06 04:58:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18844108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatsoccercoach/pseuds/thatsoccercoach
Summary: Claire goes out with the children...and gets into a small situation.





	You Hold the Key

                                                                 

She sometimes wondered why she made things more difficult for herself.

They’d just gone grocery shopping: Faith, Bree, Fergus, Willa and herself. She knew Jamie would have done it on his way home from work or that he would have watched the children and she could have gone on her own. Either of those options would have likely been much easier. But for some (masochistic) reason, she felt quite the sense of accomplishment when she could get herself and their four children out the door, safely through and entire shopping trip, and back to the car for drive home that put, at minimum, half their young children to sleep with exhaustion.

Already, Willa and Fergus’ infant car seats were safely attached to the bases that were anchored in their van. Faith and Brianna stood, each with a hand on the side of the vehicle as their rule stated. Jamie had established the requirement when the “big girls” were very small. When they were in a parking lot, they held hands, the stroller, or a shopping cart. When they were at the van, they needed to be touching it or inside of it settling into their seats.

It had provided Faith with focus and security and Brianna with boundaries, helping them both to be safe and to thrive.

“Mama?” Bree trailed a finger along the long side door leaving a streak of clean in the fine coating of dust from their driveway. “Mama, can we have a treat? Please?”

They had purchased ice cream sandwiches that were in a cooler with some other frozen items in the back of the van where Claire was currently packing everything tightly to fit it all.

“Please?” Faith popped her head around the back of the van as well, clasping her hands together, propping the toe of her shoe against the tire of the vehicle so that she would still be meeting the criteria of “touching the van.”

“We can sit on the curb and eat it so we get all the drippies on the sidewalk,” she pleaded.

Claire smiled at her girls and their shameless begging. “Of course, lovies. Right there,” she pointed to a spot in front of their van. “You sit down and I’ll bring you each a treat.” She ducked back into the back of the van to retrieve the ice cream sandwiches, opening the wrappers and then using them to create a spot to hang on without getting sticky hands.

The small girls sat on the curb, side by side, one brown curly head and one red, eating their snack while Claire finished packing up all the groceries. A family of six ate a lot and the back of the van was only so large.

“Mama? Do we have wipes?”

She looked to her daughters again to see Faith’s brows knitted in concern over an apparently goopy spot on her hand and a large smudge of chocolate somehow located on Brianna’s forehead.

“I’ll come and wipe you both off once you’re finished and I’ve put away the cart, darling.”

Giving her oldest a few moments more, she reordered a couple items so they would fit nicely together like puzzle pieces, grabbed the wipes, and slammed the back of the van shut, walking the cart back to the designated space of the car park.

Wet-wipes in hand, she approached her daughters to clean them up before getting into the van.

The van that was locked.

With her keys sitting on the front seat and her babies inside.

Her stomach dropped as she searched her back pockets for her keys even though she could see them through the van window, locked inside.

_It was ok. The babies were sleeping. She had her cell phone. Jamie was at work right down the street and he had an extra set of keys that could be here in minutes. Just breathe. Try all the doors again. Get a hold of Jamie._

If she could deal with medical emergencies, surely she could cope with keys locked in their van.

With their babies.

“Are we going now?” Bree asked. “Can we have another snack?”

“Ah, we’re going soon as Mama can get the keys out of the van,” she explained, hitting the send button on her phone to make the call for help and continuing her internal pep talk.

“Mama!” gasped little Faith, eyes wide in utter horror. “What did you  _do_ to our keys?  _Why did you trap our babies in there?!_ ”

* * *

“I still can’t believe I did that,” Claire huffed, sliding her long legs into their bed and tucking her icy feet under her husband’s calves, causing him to shudder at the contact.

“‘Twas barely ten minutes before I got there and unlocked it. And the bairns were asleep the whole time,” Jamie replied. “It happens. You are organized and vigilant and these things just happen.”

“Well, these things don’t happen to me,” she stated emphatically.

Her husband met her gaze. “Sassenach, this says nothing about yer love for our children. You are a good mother whether ye lock the keys in the car or no’.”

“Ugh,” she thumped her head onto his shoulder, resting it there while she thought. “You should have seen Faith’s face though,” she snorted. “You would have thought I suggested leaving Willa and Fergus alone in the parking lot!”

She felt Jamie shake with laughter by her side.

“Having our babies locked in there was completely unfathomable to her!”

“Weel, I think that’s because you’re her hero, Claire.”

Though she could feel the laughter bubbling just beneath the surface, she knew he was serious now.

“You care for her when she’s hurt, hold her close when she is scared, you feed her to make her strong and most of all, ye love her. You’re the most important person in her life, Claire.”

“Really? Don’t you think ‘ _hero_ ’ is a bit of an overestimation of what she thinks?” She was  _almost_ begging for affirmation and she knew it, but sometimes her insecurities caught up with her. After today’s escapade, where she’d failed her littlest children in front of her older ones, she wasn’t feeling very confident at all. And Jamie knew that and was ready to step in.

“Yer the most important person in the lives of our bairns. In my life too.” His hand searched for her under the sheets, grasping, finding, and pulling her close.

His breath tickled the hairs at the nape of her neck. “Let me show ye how amazing ye are.”


End file.
